Our heroes, having decided to try to bypass the Sword Brethren-infested city, decided to make their way more or less north-east, keeping to the forest as far as possible before heading south as quickly as possible. Reef (or Chase, I forget which) led them down through the forest, noting the lack of animal life (apart from spiders and other bugs). Pandora flew up through the canopy to see what could be seen down towards the bridge and saw a disturbingly martial gathering down there, with Sword Brethren a-plenty; all the more reason to avoid the place.
When I say "everyone took cover" what I really mean is "everyone indulged in about an hour of circular discussion about what tactics to use if and when the scouts got anywhere near them and then took cover". A proper GM would have let the Bad Guys ambush them in force while they were all wasting time and not paying attention, but I'm such a softy.
They had travelled for about an hour when Reef (or Chase) spotted a pair of human scouts moving cautiously in their general direction: the potential Bad Guys didn't appear to have spotted them as yet, so everyone took cover. Chase (or Reef) took responsibility for hiding Tallis, whose own concealment skills are woefully lacking. Reef (or Chase) peered about and noted another pair about a hundred metres to the south, heading in the same general direction as the first; he (they) realised that he (they) would have to deal with both scouts as silently as possible to avoid bringing the whole army down on them.
The ambush was only partially successful; they managed to kill both scouts in short order, but not before Tallis (who wasn't hidden nearly as well as Chase (or Reef) had assured her she was) got an arrow right in her liver, and one of the scouts had time to release some kind of messenger imp which easily fended off Reef's (or Chase's) arrow and scooted off to sound the alarm.
I forgot that Tallis still had an iron-headed arrow sticking in her at this point; they should have had to get that out before Pandora could do her fairy-healing on her. Maybe next time.
Pandora healed Tallis, who was feeling quite poorly (having an arrow through her liver) and the team scarpered just as quickly as their legs (and wings) could take them, with horns bleating behind them and the sounds of pursuit disturbingly evident. So much, they thought, for avoiding entanglement.
Reef (or Chase) drew on his memories of the area and led them swiftly to the north, to the edge of a village pasture-land. They took a brief breather there, in time to spot a column of mounted Sword Brethren emerge from the forest and ride into the village. Our heroes decided to stay in the forest edge and skirt the area unseen, although it would be a lot slower than dashing straight across the fields. They made a start, but then somebody Pandora spotted a nasty little imp dive-bombing her — it smashed into her, knocking her out of the air. Chase (or Reef) debated the pros and cons of attacking it with a great big sharp steel sword, considering Pandora's regrettable iron-allergy, and Reef (or Chase) just grabbed it and pulled it off the fairy. Its sharp barbed tail flashed around and stabbed him in the back of the hand before his brother squashed its head between finger and thumb, and almost immediately his hand and arm began to swell and putresce, and he felt himself getting weaker and weaker.
Tallis tried some first aid, but to no avail, and it was decided (over his strong objections) that amputation was the only viable alternative, after which Pandora could re-grow his arm for him. Tallis held his arm as still as possible while Chase (or Reef) whacked it off, after a couple of goes. Hoorah for primitive surgery!
For some reason they took the severed arm with them too. They discarded it once it got completely putrescent, which it did in pretty short order.
Pandora did the fairy magic again and grew his arm back, but it soon became apparent that the poison had not been stopped and he was soon entirely coverd in stinking, pus-dripping chancres, and as weak as a kitten to boot. Hearing the sound of pursuers in the distance, Tallis tucked him under her arm and they dashed off to the east to meet the river at Flaide's Crossing. They took the corpse of the imp with them in case it proved to regenerate, which it did, so they found a decent-sized rock, sewed it into its belly and tossed it into the deepest bit of the river they could find.
Over the river, beyond the village, they could see the regimented tent-lines of another Sword Brethren encampment. There was constant traffic to and fro along the road, so they decided to remain hidden for the rest of the day and then make south along the forest edge as fast as possible once nightfall came.
That night's march took them to the bank of another wide river. They had seen the marks of the passing of a sizeable party of horsemen following the same route as they were, but could not tell for sure exactly how many, or how far ahead they were.
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